Interview: Michele Selene Ang on EMPTY RIDE at The Old Globe
“Theater is, and has always been, my heart."
“Empty Ride” is a world premiere by Keiko Green at The Old Globe Theatre, starring Michele Selene Ang as a daughter who returns to Japan After the 2011 tsunami to help her ailing father by driving his taxi. Soon, she finds that while the floodwaters have receded, the ghosts they left behind might still haunt the area. Ang talks about working on this role and play to bring it to the stage and what keeps bringing her back to live theatre. “Empty Ride” is playing at The Old Globe through March 2nd.
In “Empty Ride,” Michele Selene Ang plays Kisa, a painter who lived in Paris but has returned to Japan to help her ailing father after the 2011 tsunami. While the premise is rooted in the tragedy's aftermath, Ang says that this play is about love.
“Empty Ride is a show about finding love among tremendous loss. Kisa is a painter who returns to Japan to take care of her father, but ultimately finds herself unraveling a greater mystery at the heart of her hometown.”
Written by playwright Keiko Green, Michele was drawn to how Green wrote this story and these characters authentically and multifacetedly.
“I'm drawn to the language! I really admire the direct, quietly poetic - but not sentimental - way in which Keiko writes this story. In addition to that, I think Kisa is everything that I've longed to do as an actor. She's rebellious, messy, guarded, yet full of overwhelming emotion and yearning. The play deals with immense tragedy but also has a sly, spiky humor, and I really identify with that balance. It is my most challenging role yet.”
“Empty Ride” was originally part of the 2024 Powers New Voices Festival at The Old Globe, a workshop process for the pieces Ang participated in at the time. Now, she has returned to the Globe for the piece's professional debut, and she is excited for audiences to experience it.
“We workshopped this play in January of 2024, so to be back exactly one year later for the production has been a huge honor. I'm excited for audiences to take in the beauty and humor of the play's language and relationships.”
Audiences may have also seen Michele on their TV screens, most notably in “13 Reasons Why” among other productions. Yet she says that performing in front of a live audience is something that she loves and will return to time and time again.
“Theater is, and has always been, my heart. I also think theater is very much an actor's medium. I learn the most about acting through performing on stage, even though I am often intimidated by it. There's a ritualistic, immersive quality that comes with doing a play - that doesn't really exist in TV or Film - and a sort of tension that can only be felt with a live audience. It's an incredibly powerful, yet vulnerable, experience that I am still chasing after, figuring out.”
How To Get Tickets
You can see Michele Selene Nag and the rest of the cast of “Empty Ride” at The Old Globe through March 2nd. For ticket and showtime information, go to www.theoldglobe.org
Photo Credit: Michele Selene Ang as Kisa, Major Curda as Toru, and Jully Lee as Sachiko in “Empty Ride”, 2025. Photo by Rich Soublet II.
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